One of the Kevin Smith projects that's been percolating for awhile is a horror movie he's been referring to as "Red State." It would be a considerable change of pace for the filmmaker, who is known best for his sharp dialogue and geek-pleasing cultural references. How big a change, you ask? "The dream would be to have people watch the movie and flat out not believe that I made it," he told MTV in an interview last year. With Halloween coming up, Splash Page editor Rick Marshall couldn't help but ask Smith for an update on the progress of the project in a recent interview, which you can check out in the video below.

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"'Red State' has been tough to find f---ing money for," he said, in his typically profane manner. "Finding cash has been difficult. It's not a commercial movie by any stretch of the imagination." This isn't to say that big money is necessarily required to make "Red State" happen. In fact, some of the obstacles Smith's encountered have been internal.

"I was lobbying for a cheaper movie," he explained. "One of the guys... who was making the flick with me was lobbying for a more expensive version of the movie. We weren't going to find [the larger] budget in a zillion years, so I went off and made 'A Couple of Dicks,' came back and said 'let's re-concentrate our efforts.'"

The new focus? Back to the original plan: make a good movie out of a good idea for not so much money. "Instead of pie-in-the-sky, just down-and-dirty. I made f---ing 'Clerks' for crissakes. I can't be the guy who's like, 'well I can't make a movie for less than $15 million.' I started my career that way and it's still how I feel."

Ultimately, it all comes back to the money for "Red State." There's nothing to pay for it, but everything else is in place. "If money comes together for it, boom," Smith said, snapping his fingers. "We're ready to start moving forward. Script's all done, crew is on board, we just have to find our cast."

"For me, it's just like, let's find some cash, seeing if there's any cash out there for the f---ing idea, then start attaching talent to it. So that's where we are on that." Check out our earlier Smith interview for more on "Red State," including a rough outline of Smith's idea.

Are you liking the idea of a Kevin Smith horror movie? Had you heard of "Red State" before today?